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<title>Persephone's Child by Marked_by_moonlight</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29603727">Persephone's Child</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marked_by_moonlight/pseuds/Marked_by_moonlight'>Marked_by_moonlight</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Daredevil (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Accidental Baby Acquisition, BAMF Karen Page, Blind Character, Canon Disabled Character, Deaf Clint Barton, Gen, Karen Page Knows Matt is Daredevil, POV Karen Page, Past Matt Murdock/Karen Page, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is a Little Shit, Peter Parker is a Mess, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Reporter Karen Page, Teen Peter Parker, Trans Peter Parker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 02:40:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>851</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29603727</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marked_by_moonlight/pseuds/Marked_by_moonlight</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Karen Page meets Spider-Man, and then Peter Parker, and decides that she's going to help him. Hell, she already knows every other vigilante in New York - either personally, or by association, so now she knows Spider-Man too. </p><p>She'll be damned if she lets someone so like Kevin keep throwing himself at criminals without help - except it turns out that the kid is pretty well connected himself.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Karen Page &amp; Peter Parker, Matt Murdock &amp; Franklin "Foggy" Nelson &amp; Karen Page, Matt Murdock &amp; Peter Parker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>75</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Persephone's Child</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Disclaimer: I don't own any recognizable character, story element, etc Marvel does. Please don't sue me.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first time she meets him, she’s tracking down a source. The alleyway is dirty and littered with trash overflowing from the dumpster. Her heels click along the street as she walks, careful not to step into the puddle of unknown goo that stands stagnant in the middle of the alley. </p><p> </p><p>    Far away, Karen hears the sirens of a police vehicle responding to a call. She stops and flicks her eyes down to the smooth glass face of her watch, and frowns. Her source is fifteen minutes late. She leans elegantly against the wall, and slides one hand into her purse, to find the cold metal of her .380. </p><p> </p><p>    “Ma’am, you probably should leave. This area is full of criminals.” says a voice from high above her. </p><p> </p><p>    To her credit, she barely jumps, the most startling thing about this stranger is that they sound like a <em> child, </em> and she wasn’t expecting to run into a child in an alley in the middle of the night and- <em> oh holy fuck.  </em></p><p> </p><p>    The child is Spider-Man, Spider-Man is a <em> child.  </em></p><p> </p><p>“Ma’am?”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m here for work, Spider-Man, it’s fine.” says Karen smoothly, removing her hand from her purse to flatten out the invisible wrinkles on her pencil skirt. </p><p> </p><p>“<em> You </em>aren’t a criminal, are you?” questions the vigilante. </p><p> </p><p>She laughs, she really can’t help it, because after Kevin, after Ben, after James Westley, after <em> knowing all of New York’s vigilante population, </em>Karen can’t really say that she has clean hands. </p><p> </p><p>“No, no I’m not. I’m a reporter for the <em> New York Bulletin. </em>” says Karen. </p><p> </p><p>“Oh cool! I’ve sent in a few pictures to the <em> Daily Bugle </em>before. I’m not really too enthusiastic about journalism, it seems like a cool job though! I still haven’t decided what I want to do after high school. I’m thinking maybe going to MIT and doing something with electronics development or engineering. Mr. Stark says that he thinks I'd be good at it. ”</p><p> </p><p>The teenage vigilante continues to talk, but she doesn’t hear anything he says, because <em> what the fuck, Spider-Man hasn’t even graduated high school yet?  </em></p><p> </p><p>Eventually, the kid realizes she’s zoned out and hops down from his place on the wall to tap her gently on the shoulder. </p><p>“Ma’am?” he asks. </p><p> </p><p>Karen looks at him and smiles.</p><p> </p><p>“I’m okay. Sorry for zoning out. I’m sure you’ve got other people to help, Spider-Man. Be safe out there.”</p><p> </p><p>The boy says his goodbye and she watches as he swings away, and leans back against the cool brick of the alley wall. </p><p> </p><p>----</p><p> </p><p>The second time she meets him is in Matt’s apartment. She’s bringing over case files from the office that he forgot to pick up the day before, and since it was his designated day to work from home. (She and Foggy insisted that Matt take at least one work from home day a month to recuperate from his night time activities, even if Nelson and Murdock had gone belly up over a year ago, they were his friends, and Matt would work himself to death if he could, so they had to stage an intervention). </p><p> </p><p>Karen gently sets the stack of manila file folders onto the coffee table to the left of Matt’s drink coaster, and tells him so. </p><p> </p><p>Her former boss (and former boyfriend?) is sprawled out on the couch in a pair of black sweatpants, and his chest is a spattering of black and blue and purple bruises. </p><p> </p><p>Biting her lip, she turns to walk away but before she can clear the threshold of Matt’s living room, a teenager walks into the apartment chattering a mile a minute. </p><p> </p><p>“So, Matt, I’ve gotta write a paper about people with disabilities and how we could change the infrastructure of New York to be more accessible and it got me thinking about, y’know, people like us, people who have powers, and I wasn’t sure if I could include that in the paper or not. What do you think?”</p><p> </p><p>Matt snorts, and gives his reply from the couch. </p><p> </p><p>“Peter, this is Karen Page. She knows about me already, but now she knows about you too. As far as your paper is concerned, I think that if you explain it so that your teacher understands how our abilities aren’t always helpful, then yeah, I think you can do a good job on it. What do Rogers and Clint think?”</p><p> </p><p>Peter stares at Karen wide eyed, and open mouthed. She watches as the boy visibly collects himself and reaches out a hand for her to shake. </p><p> </p><p>She does, and gives him a smile. </p><p> </p><p>“Hello again Ma’am. I’m Peter Parker, but you know me as Spider-Man.”</p><p> </p><p>“It’s nice to meet you Peter. Your assignment sounds really interesting.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh thank you! I’m looking forward to writing it. And Matt, I sent them both texts, and Clint says it's a really cool idea, and Steve hasn’t gotten back to me yet.”</p><p> </p><p>Matt just hums, and Karen nods to both of them and says her goodbyes. She has a deadline to meet and her articles aren’t going to write themselves, no matter how much she wishes they would. </p><p>
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